John;
I've seen 2 other
oil pumps that sucked up debris and froze, both small block Fords, both twisted the
oil pump shaft to look like a drill bit, and then both shafts broke about mid way.......
I would have suggested a new
oil pump shaft, it's back together and running, so that part is done.... Hope you cleaned out or at least checked the pick-up tube for debris or obstruction while you had things apart, while things are apart I try to check everything I can.....
Glad it's up and running with no ill affects, you should be o-k with the motor.....at 7,000 prms, things are turning mighty fast and your oil pump is working hard and pumping max. fluid,things can and do happen.....
A good while back after a couple of hours of running a new engine on my engine run-in stand, I changed the oil/filter getting ready to install the engine, I found 6 to 8 small pieces of unusal metal on the magnetic drain plug, couldn't identify them, showed them to a couple of mechanics and one said it looked like bits of oil expander rings..... I couldn't install the engine like that, tore it down and he was right, comes to find out, it was a defective set of rings, company owned up to it, saying they did have a bad batch and this set must have shipped out before they got them all back........
I'd still wonder what the debris was and where it came from, I'm thinking your gonna be fine with the engine if it runs good and has good oil pressure.......
David